Stars in a Time Warp

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About Me

I've owned my quilt shop since 1990, specializing in antique reproduction fabrics. Made my first quilt in 1976 which greatly reduced my sewing of clothing! Would like to find more time to SEW.......maybe when I retire? Am married to a farmer, have 3 children and 4 grandchildren who are the light of my life!!!

Friday, November 15, 2013

Lori of Humble Quilts!! Wish I had boxes enough for all who left kind comments! Good News is that I have started the next box and will work hard to fill it as soon as I can with the ends of bolts from the shop and with the leftovers from my quiltmaking!

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Had some questions about the tea-dyeing I wrote about in my previous blog. Experiment with scraps if you are really apprehensive about it! I teadyed the 3 Hexagons (they are about 4" x 5") using a teaspoonful of powdered tea mix that I found in my cupboard in a cup of boiling water. Not sure how long I left them in the tea but it was a little while......2 or 3 hours maybe. When you take the fabric out of the tea, it is darker than it will be when it dries. I wanted only to soften the stark white backgrounds. Interestingly, "tea ground" was a background color in the early 1800's fabrics......chintz for one. Time will tell if it fades tho I plan to experiment with a couple scraps to see if washing removes the tea color. I have overdyed fabrics and small quilts often in the past and have never been disappointed......might have come out differently than anticipated but I always liked the results. Most of the time, I used Rit Tan dye for those projects. Don't be afraid to experiment with it!

I thought I had taken a photo of the Hewson panel Center Medallion Quilt that I have started but could not find it so will use this one from my booth at a quilt show I vended at in Oct. The choices are in the next photo. Regan is the only one who choose the same one I did!!

These were my blue choices and I used the second from the left. I Love the second from the right (quite a few others did too!) and will use that in the next blue border. Will be a while before I get there......next border is Half-Square Triangles.

Now as to the English Piecing (not English Paper-Piecing), it is essentially the Same as EPP but without the paper! While documenting quilts here in Maine, we occasionally found the technique used. I could not find the small 4-patch blocks I wanted to show you but I will keep looking............it's fun to go through boxes of fabrics and blocks....just need to find the Time! I remembered this runner I made using an antique found in an antique shop. It was a long, skinny runner with a 1940's rayon dress fabric for the backing! I took it apart (that took a long time!) and reassembled it in a different configuration. Hope you can see the tiny whipstitches in the seams of the 4-patch below. It is accomplished by creasing the seam allowance of 2 patches, placing them right sides together and whipstitching the creased edges together.....much the same as is done with the hexagons popular today.

Block is 1870's fabric made in 2 colorways.

Four rows of my Hexagons are sewed together! I think I will work in five sections of 4 rows to make assembly less cumbersome......this is my TakeAlong project that needs to fit in my lap! I have another couple rows sewn together but want to find time to go through my fabric and make sure I have lots of choices when sewing rows!

And I have taken on another project.....thankfully, I love to make log cabin blocks and over the years have accumulated enough strips so that I can just sew (well, after I iron the strips!)whenever I have a few minutes. I will need ninety 10" blocks to make a queen-size quilt for a customer request....have until next summer to get it done but have a good start with more than 30 blocks made already! Hope I can keep up the momentum!

I work with about 30 blocks at a time just as I do with my little 3" blocks.....strip-piecing a different fabric each time, rather than cutting strips the exact length needed for each round. Trim and square each block as I get 4 sides done and start all over again till I have completed 4 rounds! The stack shown on the left below is all trimmed with one block left untrimmed so you will see what I mean.

Love this little Jo Morton quilt I just finished.....last one for Club 12! Waiting for Club 13!!

And one more thing........ For years I sewed in silence and I still love the Sound of Silence but if I listen to an audiobook, I feel I am accomplishing two things at once! I read a review of Kate Morton's "The Secret Keeper". When I went to purchase it, I found 3 previous books so I am listening in the order in which they were written.....English castles, mystery, unusual little twists and Secrets! "The House at Riverton was her first, followed by "The Forgotten Garden". Currently listening to "The Distant Hours".

And one more One More Thing......will chose the winner of the Scrap Box Giveaway on Friday! Thanks for all your comments!

Thursday, November 7, 2013

As if I need yet another quilt to work on, I just started one! Was eager to use History Repeated (1 and 2) by Julie Hendrickson for Windham.......a lovely line of browns/blues and shirtings........gorgeous fabric will speak to us that way, doesn't it!! Decided on 9-patch (6") alternating with plain squares from the same line. Note: I have already replaced 3 of the alternating squares because they were too light......do I ever not do that? Seems that with every quilt, I find something I do not like and just have to change it......better to do it now at this stage than wait until it is ready for quilting! Might not happen if I had a design wall but I don't have the wall space! Then, I decided to throw in some blocks other than 9-patches......log cabin, sawtooth star, 36 patch so far. Then I decided to throw in plain block "surprises" of unrelated fabric.

Another project I am working on is my Take-Along Hexagons that I am hand-piecing. Some of the lovely fabrics I chose had backgrounds that were just too stark white for me so I tried tea-dyeing three of them. As you can see below, it just took the edge off the starkness and I think I will like them better!!

Also working on this medallion quilt from Fons & Porter Love of Quilting magaxine (will be a Very Long Term project!). The first border is on the Hewson vase panel, a brown background from the Seneca Falls collection by Brackman/Thompson. Had a hard time deciding on the next plain blue border.......Then, will get into more interesting pieced borders!!

I lined up these choices......next time I will show you what I choose!!! What would you have chosen?

And Finally, the Giveaway box that is full to the brim.....weighs 5# 10 oz which translates to over 20 yards (using 4 oz per yard estimate)!!! Most pieces are full width of fabric (40" - 44") and less than 6" length. I use 6" strips to make cute little bundles of scraps to sell in my shop......anything less than that goes into the scrap Box. For years I saved them but I have more than I could ever use! Wish there were some way I could estimate how many miles of rotary- cutting I have done in the past 30 years!All you have to do is leave a comment on my blog and you will be included in my drawing..........I will announce the winner on Friday Nov 15. Regret to say that I will be able to ship to USA only since the overseas postage increased so much this year!